Yeah, And So’s Your Mother (Updated)

Tim O’Brien files this dispatch from the front lines of the 20th Congressional District race:

Howard Wolfson, adviser to Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, responded today to a new ad by U.S. Rep. John Sweeney that claims her campaign is attacking his family.

If Sweeney is sincere, Wolfson said, he will take two steps: Tell his campaign not to say another word about her family for the next two weeks, andÂ call on the National Republican Congressional Committee to pull an ad now running that criticizes Gillibrand’s father, Douglas Rutnik, for being a lobbyist.

“The only candidate in this campaign who has engaged in attacks on family members is Mr. Sweeney,” Wolfson said in a conference call with reporters this morning. “There are no examples that I am aware of anyone in the Gillibrand campaign attacking his family.”

He said the Sweeney campaign has criticized: her father for being a lobbyist, her brother for owning a gas station when prices were high; her husband for receiving a pension from British Aerospace, which the Sweeney camp decried as war profiteering; her father-in-law for being an official in BAE; and her late grandmother, longtime Albany Democratic activist Polly Noonan.

The Sweeney campaign said it aired the ad because the Gillibrand campaign and its supporters have left anonymous voice messages, e-mails, letters and flyers at the home and office of Sweeney and his children.

Wolfson flatly said the claim is false.

UPDATE: Response from Sweeney campaign spokeswoman Maureen O’Brien Donovan, and response to the response from Gillibrand campaign spokeswoman Allison Price, after the jump:

Donovan, the spokesman contended that none of the Sweeney ads, mailers or fliers criticized Gillibrand family members.

She acknowledged that the recent RNCC TV ad does mention that Gillibrand’s father, Douglas Rutnik, is a lobbyist. Donovan herself has made comments to the press
about several Gillibrand family members.

Price said during a cell-phone conversation she was holding a
mailer that targets Kirsten Gillibrand’s father-in-law.

Both campaigns have been asked to provide copies of any and all mailers sent by the opposition that mention
family members. We should be getting those later today.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which named Sweeney as one of the most 20 corrupt members in Congress, cited his handling of an assault charge against his sonÂ as one of the reasons for his inclusion on that list this year. While not mentioning that specifically, the Gillibrand campaign has cited the CREW designation in ads.

Donovan has noted that CREW, which claims to be nonpartisan, is led by a former staffer to two Democrats. Seventeen of the 20 officials on their list are Republicans.

“The CREW report has nothing to do with the Gillibrand campaign,” Price responded.

Donovan said many of the most negative comments are coming in a push poll call received by voters in Saratoga, Dutchess and Delaware counties. She was reluctant to repeat some of what has been said, saying it would bring unwanted attention to unfair comments.